In a crew list for the Parthia (a Cunard passenger steamship on the North Atlantic run in 1874) in the list of crew occupations the entry for "9 stewards" has been crossed out and "9 waiters" substituted. Does anyone know why it might have been important to make this distinction? David

Hi David In the 19th Century a "Steward" on a merchant ship usually meant the person who was responsible for catering and generally looking after the Captain and officers of the vessel. He had a responsibility for stores and this was recognised by his receiving higher wages - very roughly speaking not quite twice that of an Able Seaman, and roughly on parity with the other "day-men" - the Bosun, cook, carpenter and sailmaker (in early 20th Cenury sailing ship crew lists I have, the Steward was actually the highest-paid "day-man" by a few shillings). A "waiter" on the other hand sounds as if he was just that - skilled at waiting on table, but without the specialist responsibilities of a steward and doubtless paid much less. Over time, I think the term "steward" slipped to include "waiters". I don't know when that happened - maybe we have here an instance of someone being particular about insisting that the right terminology was used, maybe to distinguish THE Steward from his minions. I would guess that there might have been a "purser" or "steward" on board as well who would have been the 9 waiters' boss? Cheers Piers On 11 August 2015 at 12:05, David Marshall via <mariners@rootsweb.com> wrote: > In a crew list for the Parthia (a Cunard passenger steamship on the > North Atlantic run in 1874) in the list of crew occupations the entry > for "9 stewards" has been crossed out and "9 waiters" substituted. > Does anyone know why it might have been important to make this distinction? > > David > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >